Hamas official raps Abbas aide for Auschwitz visit

Calling the Holocaust “a big lie,” a Hamas official criticized an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for visiting Auschwitz.

Ziad al-Bandak visited the death camp last week, according to The Associated Press. Some 1.5 million people were murdered at Auschwitz.

The Hamas official, Fawzi Barhoum, said Wednesday that al-Bandak’s visit to the camp went against Palestinian public opinion.

“It was an unjustified and unhelpful visit that served only the Zionist occupation,” he said, according to Reuters. Al-Bandak called the visit “a marketing of a false Zionist alleged tragedy” that came “at the expense of a real Palestinian tragedy.”

Reuters reported that al-Bandak laid a wreath at Auschwitz.